Word Play: 101 Short Stories, Essays, and Insights to Improve Communication Skills

By Armani Talks

Word Play is a collection of 101 short stories, essays, and insights to help you improve your communication skills. This book discusses a wide range of topics to build a deeper perception of human dynamics so you can communicate with clarity, power & warmth. In Word Play, you will learn:

• Language: English
• Publisher: Armani Talks
• Release date: May 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869032485

Book preview

Author’s Preface

Math helps us understand our external world.

Words help us understand our internal world.

With math, there are set boundaries that you need to follow. You can’t turn an addition symbol into a subtraction symbol whenever you feel like it. This is why a lot of students loved math growing up. Even when they struggled with other classes, they knew that the objective nature of math will prevent their teacher from getting fancy with it.

Words on the other hand have more leeway for play. The best way to truly learn words is by playing with the letters, rhythms and tonalities. That’s when deeper levels of wisdom can be unlocked.

I’ve always been a big fan of patterns. In my world, patterns imply that nature is trying to tell me something. What fascinates me more is when I see patterns from completely different fields.

Let me give you an example of a pattern which seemed out of the ordinary.

There was a moment in my life when I joined a public speaking club and was learning the art of crafting a speech. Around the same time, I was wrapping up my higher education for systems engineering. Which is a field that deals with computers.

It just so happened that I would go to a class lecture, and then follow it up with a public speaking meeting. Both were set on a Tuesday, one after another.

As time started to elapse, I began to notice a stunning similarity between people and computers.

Was I crazy? Or was I really seeing this?

In order to create a speech, I needed to create a message in thought form in my mind, encode the thought into words, deliver the words in the medium of air and allow the other members of the audience to receive my words, decode the message and process it.

That’s how the internet pretty much works.

A computer has a message, encodes it into 1s and 0s, transmits it through the medium of fiber optic cables or Wi-Fi, and other computers pick it up to decode the message.

What a stunning parallel.

Eventually, what seemed like 2 vastly different fields started to beautifully intertwine with one another. Public speaking taught me more about computers and computers taught me more about public speaking.

Patterns like this are all around us. However, patterns like this cannot be perceived by eyes that are too serious and do not understand the role of play.

That’s where Word Play comes in.

Why Short Stories?

The stories in this book are rather short. Most of them are under 1000 words. The role of short stories is crucial to communication skills. You can make the argument that it’s impossible to progress in culture without the short story.

Don’t let modern information technology fool you.

Yes, we have long form books, feature length films and Broadway plays that can go on for hours. But at the dawn of time, we had fire and oral storytelling.

The discovery of fire didn’t just make it easier to cook food. The discovery of fire ushered in the era of creativity.

Now our ancient ancestors had power over time. No longer did they have to go to sleep when the sun went down. With the newfound power over time, these ancestors took the time to be creative. They took the time to create cave art.

Cave art is one of the first forms of storytelling out there. Short stories filled with images which displayed imagination, craft, and the desire to spread information.

Cave art set the foundations for how a person would process information. And that’s when narratives became more than a mere form of entertainment. Narratives were now a way to spread key ideas which could be passed from generation to generation.

Words allowed the dissemination of stories to become easier. Where drawing was like dial up internet, words were like high-speed internet.

The elegance of words comes down to the fact that it was not created by any one person. Get rid of the mad scientist in a lab creating words from scratch. The creation of words was a collaborative effort.

When we look at stars, we look back in time. When we use words, we go back in time. Iterations of human history led to the letters that I am using right now.

By going to the nitty gritty fundamentals of storytelling, short stories have power. Yet, short stories are often scoffed at.

Something about the word ‘short’ implies ‘insignificant’ to the mind. But that’s a big mistake. That’s the paradigm of math seeping into the paradigm of language.

Sure, 1 is smaller than 2 in the world of math. It’s easy to think like that. But in the land of creativity, small can imply gargantuan.

What’s small in size can have gargantuan power in terms of impact.

Nowadays, concentration levels are plummeting.

The sad truth is that many people have not read a book in years. Not because they don’t want to, but because their mind fights them every step of the way. All good. Let’s go back old school.

Let’s utilize the tiny tales to pierce the mind with practical insights that can change our life for the best.

How this Book Works

This book is a collection of short stories, essays and insights which deal with communication skills. The communication skills discussed in this book predominantly deal with public speaking, social skills, emotional intelligence, creativity, storytelling, and level up mindset.

Each story in this book is completely unrelated to the other. So the reader can open the book and read any chapter they desire without the fear of worrying whether they missed something in the prior chapter.

In the stories, you’ll often notice a dialogue which has been created. Where an imaginary character asks a question and I engage with this character. This will help you feel like you are in the story, which builds further engagement.

Overall, each story is simple and to the point. It’s so simple that a kindergartener can read it. However, do not let the simplicity fool you. Each story has layered meanings. It’s smart to re-read chapters which resonate with you.

As the world becomes more globalized, communication skills are going to become more important than ever. A lot of tasks that we used to do with our hands are now being automated.

The robots are coming!

Scratch that, the robots are here.

Don’t worry.

Creative jobs are safe for the time being. The ability to write, empathize, explain things with clarity & make someone laugh are desirable traits which are not going away anytime soon.

The subject of communication skills becomes more important as technology advances at rapid rates.

Communication skills are not learned from rigid lectures. It’s learned from transporting the consumer into a new world allowing them to learn from the mistakes of someone else.

The stories in this book are personal to me. By learning about my mistakes, insights & observations, hopefully, it’ll spark insights of your own.

Learning communication skills from short stories is an innovative way to make the lessons stick.

In the world of math, there are set boundaries to follow. In the world of words, the boundaries are there with the intention of being broken.

So, I invite you into this Word Play so you can be transported into a new world, one word at a time.

-

Fundamentals

Have you ever said:

If my younger self knew that, then I'd be in a completely different spot.

'I say that all the time!'

And what makes you think your younger self would have listened?

'Uh...'

Exactly.

When I was in the 11th grade, I decided to skip class to play basketball with my friend, Ditra. We didn't have a plan or anything. Just leave school to go to the park & shoot around.

Around that time, our friend Asif said it was a bad idea. He said we may get in a lot of trouble. Both Ditra & I shooed Asif away & continued with our plan.

By the time we successfully left campus, we felt like a million bucks. We walked 5 minutes over to the basketball court and began shooting around.

Asif must’ve felt like an idiot for thinking this plan wouldn't work.

1-hour passes.

Guess who happens to be driving by?

'Who?'

Our principal.

Ditra & I were both suspended for a week for skipping.

It was a tough moment.

10 years have passed on by & sometimes I think:

I should’ve told younger Armani not to skip school that day.

But then, I think:

Younger Armani probably would have told older Armani to fuck off!

Asif was saying what my present-day self would have said. So, the message wouldn't be all too different. All that would have changed was how mind blown I would've been seeing my future self.

I say all that to say this:

I needed to go through the experience myself to discover the fundamentals for myself.

Before I launched my podcast, I was focusing so much on the details.

What kind of mic should I get?

Which audio software?

How do I edit?

Etc.

I recorded over 35 episodes before releasing my first one.

'What made you release it on the 36th time?'

Because I began to see the fundamentals.

After recording 35 episodes, I made a realization.

Only a few things mattered.

What mattered was hitting record & taking it one episode at a time. All the other stuff were bells and whistles.

But if I told the Armani who had zero podcast experience that it all came down to hitting record & taking it one episode at a time, he’d believe that something was missing.

I needed to go through the experience for the insight to click.

Otherwise, it would have been empty words in my world.

Quantity then quality.

Get the experience.

Shut up & show up.

Then, the brain notices errors in movements.

Each error is subconsciously noted.

The brain is scheming up something big.

Although you may not know it, the brain is adjusting.

It is eliminating wasted movements on a micro level.

-Very hard to notice at once.

-Very easy to notice over time.

When the fundamentals are finally noticed, the present-day self may be like:

How didn't I see this before???

Because you had no data to compare it to.

Finding the fundamentals is earned.

It's a long process that you need to go on by yourself.

'Will mentors help?'

Sure. But it can also depend.

Learn to see what they view as the fundamentals. But sometimes, take it with a grain of salt.

They are giving advice from their lens.

Not yours.

One of my old school Toastmasters mentors told me to say a maximum of 2 jokes per speech.

After giving a few speeches myself, I decided that was bad advice for my life. His fundamentals did not overlap with mine.

That's why I follow the 'do & eliminate' mentality.

I had a friend who started a Twitter the same day as me. For some reason, he decided to enroll on a course on how to write. He even had some exams too!

I'm like, ‘screw that, I’ll just tweet & see where it takes me.'

It's been over 2 years:

He posted 8 tweets, overthought & jumped to a new course.

I have posted 50,000+ tweets.

Sometimes, looking at my first ever tweet makes me cringe. But we all have to begin somewhere.

Comparing the Armani from 2 years ago to my present-day self is not fair.

When you commit, commit.

Quantity, then quality.

Consistency over anything else.

Do it till you become it.

That's how we all make the same conclusion at the end of the day, it was the fundamentals which mattered all along…

Meteoric Rise

Around 2004, I was obsessed with this show called Degrassi. It was a Canadian based show that would talk about real world issues.

From bullying, confidence issues and even school shootings. Degrassi always 'went there.'

Degrassi is a high school that others would go to.

The beauty about the show was that it was going on for a long time. So, you were able to see the characters evolve from early age to a later age.

One of the craziest episodes was when this guy came with a gun to school & shot a guy named Jimmy.

Jimmy was one of my favorite characters.

Jimmy was shot, but he did not die. However, he was going to be paralyzed from waist down.

His new nickname was wheelchair Jimmy.

As a few years went on by, I grew out of watching Degrassi.

One day, my brother messages me and he's like:

'Hey, you remember wheelchair Jimmy?'

I said yes.

'Well, he's now known as a rapper named Drake!'

That conversation happened around 2008-2009.

It's surreal to think that Drake is possibly one of the hottest musicians a decade later.

Hit after hit on a global stage.

Most people probably had no clue he used to be a character called wheelchair Jimmy.

They are probably Wikipedia'ing it right now!

If you were to tell me that the guy sitting on the wheelchair with the messed-up fade was going to be one of the biggest rappers of all time, I would have laughed at you.

No way.

But way.

Drake, Aubrey Graham, wheelchair Jimmy, or however you may know him had a METEORIC RISE.

The beauty is that you never know who can have a meteoric rise. Otherwise, there wouldn't be such beauty to it.

If we knew who was going to be extremely popular or well off in the next decade, or let alone, next year...

Then everyone would be flooding that person now.

But that is rarely the case.

This is one of the reasons why you don't want to make enemies for no reason.

-Making enemies feels good to the ego.

-Mainly because the ego always needs an enemy.

But later, the possessor of the untamed ego feels drained.

As you keep leveling up, you'll notice the world is a lot smaller than you thought.

Humans that you NEVER thought you'd know are only 2 links away from your network. You never know who will have a meteoric rise.

And who knows, it may even be you.

Emotions Vs Logic

Are emotions & logic meant to be enemies?

Or are the 2 meant to be friends?

Think about that.

If you were to ask me, the answer is the latter.

Emotions & logic are meant to be friends.

Great friends at that!

But due to crude intellect, we often want to pick a side.

We confuse tribalism as a part of intellect. We create a VERSUS narrative rather than an AND narrative.

'Meaning?'

Meaning that we say logic VERSUS emotion.

Rather than logic AND emotion.

Most things in life have an opposite party to it.

When we are immature, we strictly identify with one side & ridicule the other side.

This causes us to fail to understand (not condone but understand) the other side.

This happens. And many corporations, marketers, politicians understand this.

Which is why it is so easy to pit groups against one another. A simple narrative of an us VERSUS them story is formed, and the dualistic mind of the herd will pounce on that.

Emotions & logic were never meant to be enemies.

We just failed at seeing the relationship.

-People who are hardcore into emotions call people who love logic, robots.

-People who are hardcore into logic call people who love emotions, crybabies.

When the 2 worlds meet, we create a supercharged personality.

My personal tip?

Lead with emotional management & gently invite in critical thinking. That's my personal strategy.

I tried the opposite before and made a tough realization.

Emotional management can lead to critical thinking skills.

But critical thinking skills cannot always lead to emotional management.

That's how it worked for me in my personal life.

Why?

Because humans are naturally emotional creatures.

And controlling the emotions allows us to control our foundation.

By controlling our foundation, it is easier to connect dots in a systematic way that leads to practical results, aka critical thinking.

On the flip side, if you just embrace critical thinking & laugh off emotional management, then get ready to be humbled.

I recall this one man in his 60s during Toastmasters, who kept talking about how many credentials he had in his job. Said he spoke on stage all the time.

That meeting, he got called to do Table Topics.

The impromptu speech section of Toastmasters.

NO PREPARATION.

Just get on stage & talk about a given topic.

This cocky man was terrified and ended up saying nothing.

After the meeting, he said Toastmasters just wasn't for him.

Maybe it wasn't.

I'm not a mind reader.

But I think it was for him...

However, I think he was great at planned speeches.

Just not impromptu speeches.

Him failing like that bruised his ego. He was incapable of thinking clearly when he was placed in a new environment. Emotional turmoil made him choke.

A lot of people can think clearly, until they are terrified.

However, once you start getting a strong grasp on your emotions, it's easier to spot when you are being rational or irrational in terms of your own life.

You begin enhancing self-awareness.

Logic almost falls cleanly out of self-awareness.

Not saying you are not going to have to practice problem solving, but self-awareness makes it easier to connect dots.

Once you can connect dots in terms of your life, it’s easier to do it in terms of outside reality.

I say all that to say this:

Emotions & logic are meant to be friends, not enemies.

From my experience, the mind does not make the best master. It makes a beautiful servant.

Lead with emotions.

Control your emotions.

Become fearless.

From there, a clear mind will connect the dots with logic in a clarified manner.

A Story About Mental Toughness

I had an old coworker call me one day. He was my favorite coworker during my last engineering job. A 50-year-old man, 6'4, Indian.

His name was Dennis.

Talking to Dennis felt like a breath of fresh air. He asked how I had been & I did the same for him. Then he began to update me on the climate of my last job.

Since my departure, apparently a ton of people have gotten fired. People who I knew very well.

And surprisingly, a few people have risen tremendously. One of them was a girl named Melanie.

When I first met Melanie, she was just an associate.

She worked under another manager & a team full of guys. A lot of the team would typically push her around mainly because she was so young!

She was in her late 20s and everyone in the team were in their 50s or 60s. But you could automatically tell Melanie was a killer.

She moved different.

Many of the older team members had a lot of 'experience' so they were set in their ways. They would get very combative whenever there were new procedures rolled out.

But Melanie?

She was capable of adapting.

As a few years went by, upper management began to take note of Melanie's work ethic. They decided to put two of the newest interns underneath her supervision.

'Did that make Melanie a manager?'

Yes, it did.

Her team was livid.

The other team members had decades of experience over Melanie.

Why was it that she was getting a managerial role? they wondered.

Her group slowly began to turn on her.

They talked a lot of crap about her.

Gave her a harder time.

Made her job difficult.

However, Melanie continued to adapt.

Well, after the call with Dennis, I had learned all those members from her group now work under her. To make it more amazing, she has 150+ people who now report to her!

That’s incredible.

I respect Melanie because she showed what the others in her group lacked:

Mental toughness.

She had a few hurdles along her journey.

1. She was a woman. The engineering industry is predominantly male dominated. Seeing a woman is rare.

2. She was young. Most of the other engineers were decades older & viewed her as a baby.

3. Her teammates were extremely negative. I've seen negative people in the work force, but they were different.

4. She had a strong ass accent. Others often ridiculed her for that.

The list goes on…

This story is to show that the intangible matters more than the tangible. The 4 items that I listed above may seem big to a quitter. But for Melanie, it was just some speed bumps along the way.

The great thing about people is that you never know their potential.

If you told me 3 years ago that Melanie would be the youngest Managerial Director in the company's history, I would not have believed it.

Nowadays, I’m in awe about how she turned the impossible to possible.

Let me reiterate:

You can never fully know a human’s true potential. It's the intangible which matters more than the tangible.

Although others can't see it, you can feel it.

Whether it's soft skills.

A hobby.

A side hustle.

Whatever you do, go all in.

There was a business conference I went to where the theme was 'ALL IN.' I